Industrial vacuum equipment has dozens of wet and dry uses such as hydro excavation, air excavation and vacuum excavation. In addition, the equipment can be used for directional drilling slurry removal, industrial clean-up, waste clean-up, lateral and storm drain clean-out, oil spill clean-up and other natural disaster clean-up applications. The vacuum systems may be mounted to a truck or trailer and are typically powered by gas or diesel engines.
The vacuum systems include a debris tank that is used to collect the material being suctioned by the system. A swinging type door is used over an open end of the debris tank to access the interior of the debris tank and also for emptying the contents of the debris tank. The door is typically locked in place using manually operated latches. Often times a pair of latches are located at opposing sides along the exterior periphery of the door. However, the latches are susceptible to leaking around the door where an airtight seal is not maintained between the door and the seal of the debris tank because of unequal pressure applied to the door by each latch. Another type of latch system that has been used in the past is located inside the debris tank. However, this type of latch system may be susceptible to breaking loose causing the contents of the debris tank to be inadvertently dumped as the door swings open, possibly when the excavation equipment is being driven on the roadway. Accordingly, what is needed is a door lock system for a debris tank that cannot become inadvertently released and also can apply equal pressure to the door for an airtight seal to the debris tank.